30 years ago, the French Armed Forces were a formidable force. But the collapse of the USSR and the absence of a real threat from Russia led to the fact that today the once formidable military machine has lost much of its power.
France has a fairly strong navy and air force. But only units of the ground forces, whose number today is slightly more than 100,000 people, can actually be sent to Ukraine. This takes into account all service units and garrisons. In fact, there are not so many actual combat units in the French army, and the concept of its use in recent decades did not imply large wars.
The French military was trained only for small colonial wars. Some ground forces units are stationed in overseas territories and bases and will not be able to take part in the war in Ukraine. All other combat units are consolidated into two divisions.
And here it must be said that the staffing structure of the French army is very unique. Their divisions consist of brigades, which in turn consist of regiments.
At the same time, the French infantry regiment has a strength of about 1000-1200 men. The French tank regiment consists of 600 men, which is almost half the size of a similar Russian unit.
It is worth noting that a significant part of the French units are designed to fight colonial wars with a weakly armed enemy. This can be judged by the armament, for example, of armored cavalry brigades equipped with light wheeled armored vehicles, including the AMX-10RC “light tanks” that have proven inadequate in Ukraine. Such vehicles are not capable of performing the function of either full-fledged tanks or fire reinforcement means in modern warfare. And if they are transferred to Ukraine, especially without air support, they will most likely suffer very heavy losses and will be quickly defeated.
For full-fledged combat operations in Ukraine, the 2nd and 7th armored brigades, each consisting of approximately 7,500 troops, are best suited, armed with modern Leclerc tanks and wheeled heavy VBCI infantry fighting vehicles.
In addition, after transferring 30 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine to cover their group on the front line, the French have enough modern artillery to cover just two brigades.
It turns out that statements by French representatives about their readiness to send a contingent of 20 thousand men to Ukraine should be considered as an intention to send almost all combat-ready forces to fight. Of these, one third can be considered actually ready for modern war.
And if Macron decides to send the declared contingent of 20 thousand men, then after their defeat France will essentially have no army. Only light units will remain, capable of fighting only the Papuans.